A grievance mechanism is a formal, legal or non-legal (or ‘judicial/non-judicial’) complaint process that can be used by individuals, workers, communities and/or non-governmental sectors that are negatively affected by commercial activities. This issue will focus on the background, significance and international precedents of grievance mechanism setup to make it more accessible and further promote the practice of newly-established development financial institutions in setting up grievance mechanism.
This Alert is to introduce the latest development of AIIB, present opinions and suggestions raised for AIIB Environmental and Social Framework by various stakeholders and civil organizations and provide brief analysis on differences and similarities of safeguards among the current representative development financial institutions.
While the current safeguard policies have served the development community well by protecting the environment and the world’s poor and vulnerable in World Bank investment projects, the world has changed and new and varied development and environmental demands and challenges have arisen over time. The issues the borrowing countries face have shifted dramatically. The World Bank is now in the process of reviewing, updating and strengthening its environmental and social policies to keep pace with the changing times.
Development financial institutions play a vital role in the process of sustainable development. In this issue we present the responsibility of development finance in terms of environmental and social safeguard and provide the accountability mechanism of World Bank and Asia Development Bank as example.
By this mid-April, a total of 57 countries covering five continents have applied to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The AIIB will mainly invest in infrastructure construction.The AIIB charter will be signed before the end of June, 2015. The bank will feature a three-level management structure that includes a board of governors, board of directors and senior management with effective supervision mechanism to guarantee efficiency and transparency. Also, AIIB has showed their positive attitude towards learning and adopting global experience.
The China-led development banks are developing quickly, and will soon create additional financial flows to regional and global projects. These new platforms are likely to have a significant global impact, and therefore there is pressure on them to adopt high standards and appropriate safeguards. Earlier this year, the environmental ministers from the BRICS countries met and discussed the green economy and the prospect of creating a green fund within the BRICS New Development Bank. Last week, Britain applied to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and is likely to be followed by more EU countries like Germany, France and Italy.The pressure is now building on the AIIB to develop strong policies to govern its future operations.
Global infrastructure is having more development opportunities as development of regional economic integration highlights the importance of regional and inter-regional interconnection infrastructure.
In 2013, the FDI to Africa is 3.37billion USD, with an increase rate of 33.9%. By the end of 2013, there are nearly 3000 Chinese overseas enterprises in 45 countries of total 52 countries in Africa, making Africa the second largest destination of Chinese enterprises after Asia. It has been the fifth consecutive year that China has become Africa’s largest trading partner. Earlier this month, the president of South Africa together with a number of ministers visited China and highlighted the economic cooperation between Africa and China. Apart from emphasis on infrastructure construction, opportunities in clean energy are also mentioned. Cooperation in clean energy development with developing countries are consistent with China’s commitment to South-South cooperation on climate change and can also enable Chinese enterprises and financial institutions to benefit from the financing of climate actions.
As a Chinese NGO dedicated to environmental protection, Greenovation Hub has conducted this in-depth study of China’s mining industry in order to contribute to the on-going discussions regarding China’s progress in developing environmental and social standards for investment and finance. Backed by case studies from China, Peru, Laos and Cambodia, the report examines the development of China’s domestic and international mining industries, the impacts of this development and its environmental regulation.
Between June 2012 and December 2013, Greenovation Hub conducted an in-depth study of China’s mining industry. Backed by case studies from China, Peru, Laos and Cambodia, the report examines the development of China’s domestic and international mining industries, the impacts of this development and its environmental regulation. As a Chinese NGO dedicated to environmental protection, Greenovation Hub has conducted this research in order to contribute to the on-going discussions regarding China’s progress in developing environmental and social standards for investment and finance.
